Types of Repetition
Catch
Repetition
Framing
Chain
Repetition
…a, a…
a…a
…a, a…b, b…c, c…
Ordinary Repetition
Extended Repetition
…a,…a…,a…
…a,… ba, ... ca…
Prof. Skrebnev defines 3 types of repetition: syntactical, synonymic and repetition proper [16: 84-85].
Syntactical repetition is such one which is observed in a sentence comprising two or more homogeneous parts and where an abstract syntactical position and not a word is repeated.
e.g. The people were running. Men, women, children were running.
Synonymic repetition is such one which concerns the meanings of recurrent parts of the sentence.
e.g. "Joe was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish dear fellow." (Ch. Dickens)
Repetition proper is recurrence of the same element (word or phrase) within the sentence.
e.g. Oh, the dreary, dreary moorland! (A. Tennyson)
Some linguists don't make a strict border between parallelism and repetition [10;20;24]. However, it is necessary to define that parallelism can be considered to be a variety of repetition, but not a repetition of lexically identical sentences, only a repetition of syntactic constructions [16:140]. Thus, repetition is of lexico-syntactical nature, while parallelism is purely syntactical.
Enumeration is the expressive means by which separate things, objects, phenomena, properties, actions are named one by one so that they produce a chain, the links of which, being syntactically in the same
position (homogeneous parts of speech), are forced to display some kind of semantic homogeneity, remote though it may seem.
e.g. Door-knobs, keyholes, fireirons, windows catches were polished; metal which I had no idea existed flashed with life (V. Pritchett).
Enumeration often creates the effect of great quantity of objects. If the objects being enumerated are heterogeneous, enumeration raises the expressiveness of speech, makes it dynamic and informative.
Syntactic tautology (prolepsis) is the repetition of the same statement or the repetition of the same word or phrase or of the same idea or statement in other words, usually as a fault of style.
e.g. That Jimmy Townsend - he and the job were made for each other (J. Wain).
Tautology can be considered to be the result of some reasons:
The speaker's emotions (excitement, scare, grief, etc.).
e.g. Darling, darling Bundle. She's dead.
Ignorance of the speaker.
e.g. No one could do the job more better.
Peculiar physical condition of the speaker (drowsiness, unconsciousness).
e.g. It was too late… Give me something, Doc…[24:79].
Emphatic construction is an expressive means of intensification of the meaning of one of the elements of the syntactic construction.
e.g. It isn't every day I get a chance to get out to woods (D. Carter).
e.g. "I'll never swim the Channel, that I do know", she said (J. Wain).
Emphatic construction consists in turning a simple sentence into a complex one. The part of the simple sentence to be emphasized is made the predicative of the principal clause; the rest of the original simple sentence is made an appositive subordinate clause introduced by the conjunction that [16:87].
Polysyndeton is the expressive means of connecting sentences, or phrases, or syntagms, or words by using connectives (mostly conjunctions and prepositions) before each component part.
e.g. The raisins and almonds and figs and apples and oranges and chocolates and sweets were passed about the table…(J. Joice)
Polysyndeton is stylistically hererogeneous - no less so, in fact, than, for instance, ellipsis; and certainly more varied than repetition. Thus, in poetry and fiction, the repetition of and either underlines the simultaneity of actions, or close connection of properties enumerated. Sometimes the excessive use of the conjunction and often betrays the poverty of the speaker's syntax, showing the primitiveness of the character. Not infrequently, polysyndeton promotes a high-flown tonality of narrative.
Parenthesis (parenthetical sentence) is an expressive means which consists in qualifying, explanatory or appositive word, phrase, clause, sentence, or other sequence which interrupts a syntactic construction without otherwise affecting it, having often a characteristic intonation and indicated in writing by commas, brackets or dashes.
e.g. "But don't - he wagged his finger at me - say a word to anyone else" (J. Braine).
Parenthetic words, phrases and sentences either express modality of what is predicted or imply additional information. Parenthetic elements comprising additional information seem to be a kind of protest against the linear character of the text; the language user interrupts himself trying in vain to say two things at once. Words, phrases and sentences of modal meaning may be divided into two classes: those expressing certainty and such as imply different degrees of probability.
Parenthesis comprising additional information performs a number of stylistic functions. One of the most important peculiarities of such parenthesis is the creation of the second plane, or background, to the narrative, or a mingling of "voices" of different speech parties [16:95-96].